Kota Kinabalu’s Crocodile Dundee hunts them down

His mission is to help bring closure to fa­milies whose loved ones had been attacked by the crocodile.

The most recent case happened in Kota Marudu, about 130km from here.

With the help of his friends, Lim caught a 4.5m long crocodile at the Kg Langkon river and later found remains of a 28-year-old man inside the stomach.

“Last week, I was told by villagers that a man identified as Herry Long had been attacked. So I laid a trap for the reptile,” he said in an interview.

He went to the “crime scene” and set up his base to monitor the reptile.

The father of 10 said his modus operandi was to check out the site and plan his next move, knowing from experience that the crocodile was very likely to return to finish its catch.

In this case, Lim and his friend spent four days waiting for their prey. They travelled on a speedboat before spotting a crocodile.

Then the crocodile took the bait that was clasped to their homemade five-inch hook.

“It tugged on the bait and pulled at us in its bid to escape. We only managed to get it near the shores after a struggle of about three hours,” Lim said, adding that they placed a piece of cloth over its eyes to make it still and fastened some ropes around it.

They then took the reptile to the Tuaran crocodile farm where it was killed.

That was when the remains of a human body was found inside it.

“We brought the crocodile back to Kota Marudu and dissected the stomach where an arm and leg was taken out, which were then buried together with the body of the victim,” he added.

Lim, 67, is a retired contractor who began to hunt for crocodiles five years ago when a good friend of his almost became a victim of the predator.

“Miraculously, my friend managed to escape,” he said, recalling how he began to research on ways to catch the crocodiles.

Since then, he has caught almost 60 of them.

“People call me for help after they found out that I was able to catch crocodiles,” he added.